A wide variety of packages have been developed to house integrated circuits. Dual-in-line plastic packages, referred to as DIP packages, have been used in the bulk of semiconductor manufacture for many years. DIP packages have leads that are soldered in through-holes in printed circuit (PC) boards for mounting the package on the PC board.
Recently, surface-mount packages have been introduced to eliminate the necessity of soldering leads in holes in PC boards. Surface-mount packages have leads that are soldered to printed circuit conductors on the surface of a printed circuit board. Surface-mount packaging permits the device leads and PC board conductors to be closer together to achieve greater densities than possible with DIP packaged devices.
More recently, edge-mounted, surface-mount packages have been developed in an effort to further increase density, improve cooling and reduce cost. Presently available edge-mounted, surface-mount integrated circuit devices typically include a semiconductor die encapsulated in a plastic package and leads electrically connected to the die and extending from an edge of the packaging material. Plastic supports, integrally formed with the package, extend from the same edge as the leads for insertion into holes in a printed circuit board. The plastic supports, when inserted into the holes, are intended to provide sufficient support to hold the device in the correct vertical orientation until the leads are soldered to printed circuit conductors.